(HALIFAX, N.S.) - The Saint Mary's Huskies defeated the visiting UNB Varsity Reds by a score of 5-2 Tuesday night in front of a season-high crowd of 2,719 fans to force a third and deciding game in the 2013 Subway AUS men's hockey championship final series.
The CIS No. 4-ranked Huskies received another strong game in goal from second team AUS all-star Anthony Peters (Blyth, Ont.), who stopped 32 shots in the victory.
Stephen Johnson (Guelph, Ont.) opened the scoring in the first period, taking a pass from Shawn O'Donnell (Halifax, N.S.) and putting the puck behind UNB's Daniel Lacosta (Labrador City, Nfld.) at the 7:24 mark.
The Huskies would take a 1-0 lead into the locker room after 20 minutes.
"The first goal was something we were really gunning for," said O'Donnell. "We really wanted to come back strong after that last game and get the first one here tonight to get the large crowd into the game."
The CIS No. 2-ranked V-Reds tied the game at two in the second period, when Peters misplayed the puck to UNB forward Tyler Carroll (Strathroy, Ont.), who fanned on the initial shot before putting his own rebound in the back of the net at the 15:46 mark for his third goal of the post-season.
Matt Tipoff (Toronto, Ont.), with his first of two on the night, gave the Huskies lead once again less than three minutes later when he batted the puck out of mid-air off a crossing attempt from Johnston and into the net on a bit of a broken play.
The Huskies led by a score of 2-1 after two periods.
UNB tied the game midway through the final period, with Carroll once again being credited with the goal. Thomas Nesbitt (Ottawa, Ont.) and Josh Kidd (Sundridge, Ont.) picked up assists on the play.
Less than a minute later, Kyle Perriera's (Brampton, Ont.) point shot would find its way into the back of the net to give the Huskies their final lead of the night.
O'Donnell made it 4-2 at the 13:19 mark by racing down ice after a puck that was trickling towards the UNB goal. Lacosta attempted to get to the puck and cover it first, but O'Donnell dove out and punched it through this legs.
The Varsity Reds pulled Lacosta for an extra attacker while on the power-play with a minute and a half to go, but Tipoff managed to intercept a pass at the SMU blue line and score into an empty net with three seconds remaining to make the final score 5-2.
Final shots were 34-20 for UNB, with LaCosta making 15 saves on 19 shots in the loss.
The V-Reds went 1-for-8 on the power-play, while the Huskies were 1-for-4.
Game 3 of the best two-of-three Subway AUS men's hockey championship final will take place at the Aitken Centre in Fredericton, Thursday evening at 7:00pm and can be seen live via webcast at www.AUStv.ca.
Source: Saint Mary's Sports Information
Photo courtesy of Nick Pearce (www.123photo.ca)